Just Say the Word
by anthem0201
Summary: Megumi has had enough. Yahiro denies any wrongdoing. A silent war ensues. Can Megumi stand by her decision? Will Yahiro admit defeat? Cover image courtesy of eurii-chan of DeviantArt
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own S.A, only the plot for this fanfic. I do, however own Yahiro… in my head. ;)

**Just Say the Word**

If any one of her neighbors heard the ruckus she was creating, they'd think that her flat was being robbed. Well, getting rid of all the trash (Hmn. Funny how she considers them trash now) Yahiro gave her with as much noise as she could cause the stuff to create was kind of therapeutic. She picked up the empty fishbowl sitting on her bedside table, "Well that goldfish did not last a week," she muttered to herself. She remembered begging Yahiro to buy her a goldfish when he accompanied her to a summer festival a few years back. When Yahiro finally caved in she of course chose the fattest in the bunch, even when he warned her that it won't last a week. "Stupid know-it-all!" she hissed, remembering his smug grin when they found the fish belly up a couple of days after. She stared at the fishbowl intently, and in her eyes it was slowly forming a very strong resemblance to Yahiro's head. She threw it at the bottom of her trash bin, rubbing her hands together like a criminal mastermind when she heard the glass reach the bottom with a satisfying crash. _Now let me look for something else to smash._

* * *

Yahiro heard another smash and despite himself, he cowered. "What has gotten into her?" he whispered to himself. Everything was fine between them last night when he brought her to Saiga Group's New Year's party. He glowered at her when she tried to speak to him instead of using her sketchpad and she responded by blowing raspberries at him. She'd look longingly at him and he'd avert his gaze, afraid that she'll somehow see the emptiness he kept inside. So yes, everything was fine with them. Until he drove her home.

She was sleepy and he let her lean on to him while he was driving. Then she looked up to him and whispered that she loves him, almost like a prayer. He looked at her, and he felt a sudden wave of guilt—of self-loathing even. How could a woman as perfect as Megumi love someone as damaged as him? He didn't know how to respond to her, so he went to his go-to answer. He gave her a lopsided grin, "As always, babe."

The effect was instantaneous. She recoiled from him and fumbled to open the passenger door even as the car was just pulling to a stop.

He hurriedly got out of the car and tried to chase after her. "Hey! Megumi, wait!" He caught her wrist before she could go inside the lobby of her apartment complex. He forced her to face him. He was bewildered. "What's going on? Hey," he gently lifted her chin, urging her to look at him but she just dropped her gaze. "Did I do something wrong? Please look at me."

Megumi looked at him, and then shook her head. "Did I do something wrong?" he repeated.

"N-no." Megumi answered voice barely audible.

His temper flared when he heard her voice. "I told you to use your sketchpad!" he shouted at her.

Megumi's face went beet red, "You're not the boss of me!" she shouted at him.

"I thought you loved your voice? Why are you wasting it by shouting at me?!" He shouted back.

She scoffed, "What do you know about love Yahiro?"

Before he could answer her, she spun around and sped to the elevator.

* * *

And now he's at her front door, fighting the urge to just walk away and go home. The old Yahiro would have done just that without batting an eyelash, but through the years he valued his friendship with Megumi more than he dared to admit to himself.

He finally decided to ring her doorbell after he heard that the crashing already stopped. I'm such a wuss, he silently chided himself.

"I have faced more intimidating people. Heads of state. Business tycoons. I can handle this. I can handle this," he murmured to himself. He rang the bell again, now with renewed confidence.

The door burst open and Yahiro felt as if the blood drained from his face.

Megumi would have doubled over with laughter if she was not so furious with him. He was as white as a sheet.

She leaned on the door frame, put her hand on her hip and glared at Yahiro, "What do you want?" she asked him menacingly. When he opened his mouth to answer, she hissed, "And don't tell me to stop using my voice or I swear to god, I'll scream."

Yahiro raised his hands in surrender, "I got it. I just came here to, uhm. I really didn't understand what happened last night. I want to talk. Please," he sighed, "I'll be leaving for Hong Kong this weekend; I don't want to go without knowing that we're okay."

She looked at him intently, gave him an imperceptible nod and swung the door open.

She looked at him with unveiled disdain and Yahiro could not stop himself from fidgeting.

"So…" he started. She just raised an eyebrow.

"You came here to apologize?" she asked him.

"Why would I apologize if I don't know what I did wrong?" Yahiro answered petulantly, suddenly irritated by the fact that he had to grovel and ask for her forgiveness when he has no idea what he did to make her mad. Maybe it's that time of the month, he thought to himself. He couldn't help but smirk.

Megumi made a tsk-tsk sound, "You really have no idea, do you?"

"If I had, do you think I'd ask?" he said sarcastically. It was apparently the wrong thing to say, since Megumi's face turned beet red again. "Okay. We're not getting anywhere with this. Can we talk like normal people?" He went on when she didn't answer, "Can you use your sketchpad, please? All this talk, I don't mean to scold you but it's going to strain your voice."

She nodded slowly, and reached for her pen and sketchpad from the coffee table. She was writing so fast that Yahiro didn't want to imagine how it'll be like if she actually said whatever she's writing to him.

"Megumi—"he stopped when she raised her left hand and gave him an I'm-not-done-yet look.

After a few seconds, she raised her sketchpad, "Did you ever consider that I might be tired with just being your friend? I always tell you that I love you and you just acknowledge it as if I'm telling you that the sun will shine tomorrow. My love for you has become a given. I don't want it to be just that. I really can't stand this unrequited love thing. I can't be just your friend. If you can't love me back… please stop making me hope that there's more for us."

Yahiro looked up and saw that Megumi's eyes were brimming with tears. He wanted to kick himself. His greatest weakness, aside from being an unfeeling jerk, is that he can't stand seeing a woman cry.

"I'm sorry, Megumi," he said, his voice somber, "I never thought…"

Megumi tried to write on her sketchpad, but her hand was shaking so bad, she threw her sketchpad aside. "I'm hurt," she started, "because I can never seem to be content with what we have. Every day I keep on thinking that maybe, you'd love me a little more." She looked so angry, so frustrated with herself that Yahiro wanted to reach out and hug her. Her sobs were growing louder, but she was trying very hard to compose herself. "Every day for the past ten years. Every freaking day. I'm stupid. I'm so stupid that I didn't see that much as I love you, you're still in love with someone else."

"This has nothing to do with Akira!" he protested.

She smiled sadly at him. He barely heard her say, "If you think that, then you're as blind as I am."

* * *

"So you basically told him that he's an unfeeling jerk who is still holding a torch for Akira and is in a way exploiting your feelings for him?"

Megumi looked at Tadashi, amazed at how he can chomp on a huge bite off of the burger he's eating and give out a very spot on review of her predicament.

"Basically." she said with a sad smile.

Tadashi looked up at her from his plate, struggled to swallow a particularly large slab of meat, "And what did he say?"

She sighed. What exactly did Yahiro tell her? He half-heartedly denied that he still has feelings for Akira, but that was expected. He never admitted to having them in the first place. What was she trying to accomplish confronting him like that- laying out all her frustrations and blatantly asking him to love her or leave her?

"Well he denied being in love with your wife, if that's what you want to know."

Tadashi looked at her intently and she had to avert her eyes.

"I never saw him as a threat Megumi," Tadashi said, "so no, that's not what I want to know."

She sighed again. She stared down at her tea cup. "It's what he didn't say back that hurt the most," she whispered to herself.

"I'm sorry?" Tadashi said, perplexed.

"Nothing." She looked out the window, trying to find the right words to say, or even the right words to think. Perhaps using her sketchpad to communicate was not so childish, after all. When she didn't know what to say, she just drew symbols to say that she's out of words. She erased her mistakes. She thought through her choice of words. When she wrote on her sketchpad, she could _think_ before she put anything on paper. Writing was safe. Writing was distant. That's the reason why she only used her sketchpad when she's with Yahiro. She's scared, every time she talked to him, that she'd just blurt everything out.

"I just need time to be away from him. Away, from everything, you know?" she told Tadashi. She knew he'd understand. Of all her friends from S.A, Tadashi's the only one who disappears on a regular basis much to Akira's annoyance, blaming it on the need to be alone and to think. To be honest, she thinks he's just suffering from a severe case of wanderlust.

Tadashi nodded, and then smiled mischievously. "How does Hawaii sound?"

* * *

There. Please tell me what you think. This is going to be short, about 3 chapters or so. I hope you enjoy.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm sorry for the delayed update. I had a ton of requirements to complete. The good news is SUMMER IS HERE, well it's been here for almost a month now (at least in the Philippines), but I wasn't able to enjoy it because I was busy being a good student (blech). My semester is finally over and I can write all I want. Ohoho!**

Disclaimer: I do not own S.A, only the plot for this fanfic. I just created Sims named Megumi and Yahiro, so yeah, I own them… their Sim versions that is. ;)

**The Hunt**

Yahiro's eyes were closing and he was trying his best to stay awake. His body was screaming for sleep, which was logical considering the stress he'd been through for the past 4 days. He was able to close a huge export deal for his company which in itself was great because Saiga Group's investors had been pestering him about it, but surprisingly the only thought that came to him after signing the deal was; _now I can go home and deal with that brat_. And if he was really honest with himself, Megumi was all he could think about while he was in Hong Kong. He may have unknowingly sold his company off to someone else and wouldn't have realized it, for all the attention he gave the business meetings he had to attend. His mind kept on drifting to Megumi and he was alternately annoyed with her for being unpredictable and with himself for being dense. Well, he was mostly annoyed with himself. He was never really good at human interaction, but he thought his relationship with Megumi was an exception. Apparently he was wrong. To top it all off, she hasn't returned any of his calls. He even tried calling Sakura but she doesn't have any idea why Megumi was not returning his calls. It was not until he talked to Jun that he learned that Megumi was no longer in Japan.

* * *

"Hmm… Honey? Can you pick up the phone, please?"

Tadashi grunted in response and rolled to his side, "What?"

The phone stopped ringing and Akira motioned for Tadashi to just go back to sleep. Before her head hit the pillow, however the phone started ringing again.

"Just ignore it." Tadashi said sleepily. Akira was about to do just that when she heard someone banging on their front door. That seemed to completely wake Tadashi up. He hurriedly grabbed his shirt and headed for the door. "Stay here."

Akira nodded, but as soon as Tadashi was out of their room she grabbed the nearest clothes she can find and followed him.

* * *

Yahiro was debating whether to ring the bell again or just come back in the morning. He had been standing in front of the Karino's house for almost ten minutes, constantly ringing the bell and calling the couple's house phone simultaneously. He didn't really think about going to Tadashi's house straight from the airport; well mainly because lack of sleep impaired his mental capacity. He just drove there, not caring if they're asleep or away or in the middle of something- _wait, what?_ He shook his head in chagrin. He sighed. Might as well try again, he thought. He was about to press the doorbell again when the door suddenly open. The greeting he was about to say was drowned by Tadashi's ear-splitting scream. Then he slammed the door. **_What. The. Hell_**

* * *

Akira rushed down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. She reached Tadashi in record time, her husband leaning against the front door, visibly horrified.

"What happened?" She asked him, a worried look marred her face. "Who was it?"

She saw her husband gulp for air, "G-g-ghost." He managed to squeak.

_Did he say ghost?_ She rolled her eyes and tried to hide her irritation. If he wasn't so shaken, she'd smack him then and there.

"Honey, what are you talking about?" She pushed him aside and started to open the door, ignoring Tadashi's pleas.

* * *

Yahiro thanked the gods when the door opened again, only to retract when he saw a very pissed Akira. Hiding behind her was the idiot Tadashi. He gritted his teeth in annoyance. He had to deal with these people in order to find Megumi. _Oh, I'll make you pay, you brat_.

"Yahiro," Akira broke his sinister train of thought, "it's three a.m."

He nodded in agreement. "It is."

Akira wanted to punch him in the face. He had always been insufferable.

"Then why the hell are you here, disturbing our sleep and scaring the life out of Tadashi?" She asked him menacingly.

Yahiro did not flinch. He looked straight at Tadashi, "Where's Megumi?"

"Tadashi, what the hell is he talking about?"

Akira shot an inquiring look at her husband when he didn't answer.

"Hn. Well, if you came here at this ungodly hour for her," Tadashi said, suddenly serious, "then we should talk inside."

He motioned for Yahiro to come in, and took Akira's hand to guide her to the living room.

* * *

"You know, you have to tell me what's happening here before I force it out of you." Akira said, giving her husband the evil eye. "Why is he here and why is he asking you about Megumi's whereabouts?"

"Tsk. You really need to know everything, don't you?" He threw his wife an amused glance before going back to pouring coffee for them.

"Why wouldn't I?" Akira shot back, "Megumi had not been in contact since last week, and then Saiga comes here in the middle of the night," she motioned at Yahiro, "obviously dead tired and asks you where she is. It's weird."

Tadashi just shook his head, took the tray with their coffee and motioned for Akira to take the other, "Come on, let's talk about it there." He walked out of the kitchen and started walking towards the living room.

Akira had no choice but pick up the tray and follow her husband. There were just some things that she can't bully Tadashi into telling her.

* * *

"How was Hong Kong?" Tadashi asked, pouring him a cup of coffee.

Yahiro scoffed, "I'm not here for pleasantries Karino."

Akira glared at him but he ignored her. Tadashi merely laughed, to his annoyance.

"Right," Tadashi said amiably, "you're here looking for Megumi. Hn. What if I tell you that I don't know where she is?"

"Then you'd be lying. And you'd be pretty close to pissing me off." Yahiro took a sip from his cup. "I spoke with Jun. He said that you were the last person Megumi talked to, before she stopped returning our calls. He doesn't seem bothered that Megumi's gone, so I assumed that he knew that she's with someone we know, or she told someone where she'd be staying."

"That may be the case, but what made you think that she wants to be found?" Akira asked.

"I don't care if she wants to be found or not. I need to find her."

Tadashi shook his head in amusement, "Megumi did talk to me before she left, but based on what happened between you two, confronting her now may cause more harm than good."

"I need to find her." Yahiro repeated.

Akira just smiled at him, and gave Tadashi a knowing look. "You have always been relentless, Yahiro. But what's happening now—Megumi needs this."

Tadashi took Akira's hand and smiled at his wife. "She's in Hawaii with Hikari. I can't stop you if you'd go there to find her but I'll tell you this, you need to think about the consequences of your actions. If you do find her in Hawaii, what would you do?"

Yahiro looked at the couple, lost. "I don't know."

"Can you give her what she wants?" Tadashi asked. Yahiro did not answer.

Tadashi shook his head in dismay. "Maybe you should think about what she is to you, before you force her to come back to your life."

* * *

Yahiro thought about what Tadashi said after he left the couple's home. _Megumi is a friend. Megumi is my bestfriend._ He repeated those words to himself but they felt empty.

He remembered the looks of understanding that Akira and Tadashi exchanged while talking to him- the way they seemed to understand what's going on in each other's mind without the other saying it out loud. He wanted that. He's not jealous that Akira ended up Tadashi; he got over that feeling a long time ago, but he had to admit that he envied what they have. He wanted to have someone who'd understand him even when he's not saying anything, someone who can comfort him by just holding his hand. Most of all he wanted to be _that _person to someone. _Can you be that person to Megumi?_

He let out an exasperated sigh. He didn't know the answer. What he knew is that he can't let Megumi walk out of his life just like that.

He sighed again, and then he noticed that his mobile phone was blinking. He picked it up and saw that Akira sent him a message.

_You're too hard on yourself. Always have been. You deserve to be happy. Don't let your happiness slip away._

He couldn't help but smile. _Then, let me tell her that I'm going to get her—eventually._

* * *

Megumi was trying clean up a new song that she was writing, but she can't concentrate. She had been ignoring her stomach's growling for about an hour already and she felt that her insides are finally going to revolt. She was about to close her laptop and grab something to eat when an icon popped up, indicating that she has mail. She hurriedly opened the window; she had been waiting for an email from her record producer for days. When she read the email, she felt her body grow cold.

_I will find you. And when I do, I will not let you go. Consider yourself warned._

- _Y_

She broke out in a cold sweat. _I think I'm going to throw up._


End file.
